Archive for commentary

It’s just about Oscars time! This Sunday, Hollywood’s biggest names will gather to (slightly self-indulgently) announce the best movies, actors, and more from the last year in the film industry. Our predictions for the winners this year are after the jump.

Happy Thanksgiving, Insiders! It’s easy to forget that buried somewhere in the frenzied family gatherings, football games, and tryptophan-induced comas, there’s a holiday dedicated to gratitude. Here are a few things that the crew at Inside Redbox are thankful for this year.

Despite some well-publicized missteps and setbacks, Netflix remains one of the power players in the movie rental business. Their streaming content library continues to grow, and at least some of the company’s attention remains fixed on its shrinking but still robust DVD business. But is Netflix missing an opportunity?

It’s been stated repeatedly here and in many other places: consumers have (probably permanently) shifted away from an “own” mindset to a “rent” one when it comes to home entertainment. The second quarter results for the sales of physical media underline this shift: sales of packaged goods such as DVDs dropped 16.3%. At the same time, DVD-by-mail and streaming video-on-demand grew more than 24%, while kiosk rentals were up nearly 37%.

A very hot topic in the home entertainment industry recently has been premium VOD. Proponents and opponents of the new service have been very vocal and passionate about their viewpoints, and some of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters have weighed in on the matter.

What exactly is premium VOD? Why is it causing such an uproar? Will it be around for the long haul or is it just a passing thing? Our viewpoints on the subject are after the jump.

It’s Thanksgiving again, that time of year when we gather with family and friends, stuff ourselves, and make our shopping plans for Black Friday.

Another Thanksgiving tradition for many is to recount all of the things that we are grateful for. Like many of you, Insiders, the Inside Redbox team has a lot to be thankful for this year, and we’d like to share our (home entertainment-related) list with you.

It’s an expensive cycle, building a home video library. Just when consumers had filled their cabinets with VHS tapes of their favorite movies, the DVD came out. With its smaller size, clearer picture and wealth of extras and options, DVD became the format of choice for millions in rounding out their video collections. Finally, a few years ago, Blu-ray defeated HD DVD to become the next generation format.

Blockbuster, the blue behemoth of the video rental scene, has gone bankrupt. Just a few short years ago, the idea would have seemed almost laughable, as the then-unstoppable BB clobbered one video store after another during its ascendancy. Unfortunately for Blockbuster, consumers are even more fickle than fortune, as the masses quickly grew tired of high rental prices and draconian policies as cheaper options became available.

Don’t gasp at the title of this post—we’re not announcing the demise of our favorite DVD rental kiosks. We’re just wondering aloud (at least as loudly as you can over the Internet) what the DVD rental world would be like today if Redbox had never come along.